Remote monitoring apparatus for medical conditions

ABSTRACT

A physiological monitoring apparatus comprising a cellular phone handset connected to a cellular phone network is disclosed. The handset includes a removable battery container ( 12 ) having a physiological monitoring device ( 14 ) contained therein as well as a battery power source ( 13 ). The battery power source ( 13 ) provides power for the operation of the handset ( 11 ) as well as providing power for the physiological monitoring device ( 14 ). The battery container ( 12 ) has detectors ( 15 ) located on its outer surface, communicating with the physiological monitoring device ( 14 ) through apertres in the battery container ( 12 ). Acoustic coupling means ( 18 ) are adapted to couple tones produced by the physiological monitoring device ( 14 ) with a sound microphone of the cellular phone handset. The physiological monitoring device ( 14 ) is activated by placing it against the chest of a patient and the cellular phone handset is used to connect to a remote monitoring station via the cellular phone network. The cellular phone handset sends an electromagnetic signal corresponding to the acoustically coupled tonal signal produced by the physiological monitoring device ( 14 ).

The present invention relates to the field of monitoring physiologicalparameters and, in particular, a cardiac patient's electrical cardiacactivity at a central location by means of an apparatus associated witha cellular mobile phone handset and transmitting the information overthe cellular phone/ telephone network. The present invention can also beused to measure and control other physiological parameters such as inblood pressure monitoring, asthma control, pregnancy monitoring, oxygensaturation monitoring, diabetes measurement, heart sound monitoring andother like measurements.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

Although the following description refers generally to remote cardiacmonitoring equipment, the equipment can also find utility in anysituation in monitoring of other physiological parameters or any otherpossible use. Therefore, reference to cardiac monitoring is also meantto encompass any monitoring of other physiological parameters where, bysuitable modification if necessary, the invention can also be utilised.

Throughout the world, cardiac disease, including heart attack andangina, is the leading. cause of death, It is responsible for moredeaths than any other diseases.

It is estimated that 2-4% of the general population suffer from heartdisease and 10-12% of the general population are considered to have twoor more heart disease risk factors which would ideally require periodicdiagnostics or preventive medical treatments.

The activity of the heart is regulated by electrical impulses which canbe measured and presented for diagnostic or preventive purposes, in theform of an electrocardiogram (ECG).

To acquire an ECG, electrodes are physically attached to a designatedposition on the patient's chest to pick up electrical impulses.Traditionally ECG diagnostic tests were carried out in hospitals orclinics where the patient would be attached to an ECG recorder.

Most people experience some form of arrhythmia (abnormal rythymdisturbance of the heart). Rarer forms of arrhythmia, such asventricular fibrillation, often result in the heart stopping and death.According to cardiologists, just under 20% of all people who experiencesome form of heart attack will die in the first hour due to the severityof the attack.

The most striking fact about survival after heart attacks is thepredominance of deaths within the first 24 hours after the attack beginsand the significant proportion of these deaths which are within thefirst few hours. In fact, 60% or more of heart attack deaths occurbefore the victims reach a hospital. Once victims arrive at hospitalsand survive the first day, overall chances of survival are muchimproved.

Denial time is the time interval between symptom onset and a request formedical care. This so-called denial time contributes greatly to the 3hour average time lapse between symptom onset and medical intervention.This 3 hour interval is of major significance. It is estimated that eachyear about 25% of all myocardial infarct patients die before reaching ahospital and that 66% of all sudden deaths occur outside the hospital inthe first 2-3 hours after onset of symptoms.

Early therapy, ie within 3 hours of the onset of symptoms, for heartattack victims using anti-clotting agents has shown to significantlyincrease patient survival rates.

With the development of advanced microprocessors computing and datatransmission technologies, the remote transmission and acquisition ofECG is possible presenting new possibilities in home care, preventivediagnosis and emergency systems.

Existing systems for the remote monitoring of a patient's electricalcardiac activity use known ECG equipment which generate tone signals orthe like to be sent via a telephone network to a central location whichis used to record and monitor the tone signals. The tone signals iregenerally acoustically coupled to the telephone handset which transducesthe tone signals into electrical signals to be sent over the telephonenetwork.

Existing ECG equipment uses electrodes and wires to provide theelectrical signals produced when detected from the patient's cardiacactivity. These electrical signals travel over the wires to a transducerdevice which produces tone signals which are then acoustically coupledto the telephone network,

The use of these existing systems is awkward and relatively userunfriendly as the patient is not always in a position or situation whereits use is satisfactory or convenient such as when the patient is inpublic places. The use of the existing ECG equipment including theelectrodes and wires also introduces the possibility of errors in thereadings due to noise pickup from the wires and electrodes.

It would be advantageous to provide a monitoring apparatus whichincludes the ECG equipment and telephone handset in the one device sothat the apparatus is simple and convenient to use by the cardiacpatient in all circumstances as well as dispensing with the need to havethe electrodes connected to the equipment by leads or wires which canintroduce errors in the readings. It would also be advantageous to havethe mobile telephone handset device connected to a cellular mobiletelephone network so that the apparatus can be used at public locationswhich are not accessible by the normal telephone network

It would also be advantageous for the mobile cellular phone handset tobe used in its normal way as a means for verbal or other communicationover the cellular phone network when it is not being used for the remotemonitoring of the cardiac activity of the patient.

It would also be advantageous for a monitoring apparatus which includesthe other forms of physiological measurement and telephone handset inthe one device so that the apparatus is simple and convenient to use bythe patient in all circumstances as well as dispensing with the need tohave the electrodes or other such detectors connected to the equipmentby leads or wires which can introduce errors in the readings.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a physiologicalmonitoring apparatus which substantially overcomes or ameliorates theabove mentioned disadvantages. At the very least, the object of theinvention is to provide an alternative to known physiological monitoringapparatus.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention there i s disclose d aphysiological monitoring apparatus comprising a cellular phone handsetconnected to a cellular phone network, said handset including aremovable modified battery power source pack container having aphysiological monitoring means contained therein as well as a batterypower source means, said battery power source means providing power forthe operation of the Handset as well as providing power for thephysiological monitoring means, said modified battery power source packcontainer having located on its outer surface detector means are incommunication with the physiological monitoring means through aperturesin the modified battery power source pack container whereby the detectormeans are attached to the modified battery power source pack container,acoustic coupling means adapted to couple tones produced by saidphysiological monitoring means with a sound microphone of the cellularphone handset wherein said physiological monitoring means is activatedby placing it against the chest of a patient and said cellular phonehandset is used to connect to a remote monitoring station via thecellular phone network, said cellular phone handset sending anelectromagnetic signal corresponding to the acoustically coupled tonalsignal produced by the physiological monitoring means,

Preferably, the physiological monitoring means monitors cardiac activityby means of an electrocardiogram ECG apparatus. The present inventioncan also be used to measure and control other physiological parameterssuch as in blood pressure monitoring, asthma and respiratory functioncontrol, pregnancy and foetal condition monitoring, oxygen saturationmonitoring, diabetes and blood chemistry measurement, heart soundmonitoring and other like measurements.

In one preferred form of the invention, the cellular phone connectionbetween the handset and the network is activated by the production ofthe tonal signal by the ECG monitoring means.

In a preferred form of the invention, the physiological monitoring meansmonitors signals received from a device implanted in the patient, suchas a pacemaker or the like, such that the signals indicate correctfunctioning thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be now be described with reference to theaccompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a rear perspective view of a cellular phone handsetincorporating the apparatus according to the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention; and

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the apparatus according to the preferredembodiment of the present invention,

BEST MODE OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

A cellular phone handset 10 incorporating the apparatus of the preferredembodiment is illustrated in the drawings and as Seen from the rear hasa casing 11 including a removable modified battery power pack container12 removably attached thereto.

The battery pack container 12 has contained therein a battery powersource 13 together with a bio-aquisition unit 14 which is preferably anECG monitoring device which formulates the results of electrical cardiacactivity detected by a bio sensor 15 which are preferably electrodeswhich are fixedly attached to the container 12. The bio-aquisition unit14 includes a bio-amplifier 16 connected to a acquisition controller 17having a speaker output 18 and a connector interface 19 which ispreferably a RS 232 connector. The electrodes 15 connect to the ECGmonitoring device 14 via apertures in the container 12. In thisembodiment three electrodes 15 are shown, however any number ofelectrodes can be used according to the specific requirements of thetesting of the patient eg cardiac activity etc.

The battery power source 13 is used to power the operation of the ECGmonitoring device 14 as well as the operation of the cellular phonehandset 10 for its regular use and is able to be charged in the normalway.

The ECG monitoring device 14 produces tone signals corresponding to thesignals detected by the electrodes 15 and is acoustically coupled viathe speaker output 18 to the microphone of the cellular phone handset 10which is able to transmit these tone signals over a cellular phonenetwork to a central location which collects and collates these signalsas data which is then interpreted by medical practicioners

In one preferred form, the ECG monitoring device 14 and cellular phonehandset 10 are activated by the receipt of electrical cardiac signalsreceived from the electrodes 15 when the patient places the electrodesagainst his or her chest in the appropriate manner. The ECG is recordedand simultaneously transmitted to a service centre for diagnosticevaluation after it is received down the “phone line”.

The advantages of the apparatus of the preferred embodiment is that thehandset 10 with electrodes 15 “built in” provides a simple andconvenient method of detecting and transmitting data corresponding toelectrical cardiac activity without the possibility of noise and errorsbeing present as is the case with present methods of existing devices.The patient is able to carry a single device in the form of a cellularphone handset and be able to be connected at any time to the centrallocation for analysis of the data.

Naturally the device of the present invention is suitable for thedetection of other physiological parameters and use the appropriatedetection as required.

In a preferred form of the invention, the physiological monitoring meansmonitors signals received from a device implanted in the patient, suchas a pacemaker or the like, such that the signals indicate correctfunctioning thereof.

the foregoing describes only one embodiment of the present invention,and modifications obvious to those skilled in the art can be madethereto without departing from the scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A physiological monitoring apparatus, comprising:a cellular telephone handset connected to a cellular telephone network,said cellular telephone handset including a removable modified batterypower source pack container having physiological monitoring meanscontained therein and a battery power source, said battery power sourceproviding power for operating said cellular telephone handset and forproviding power for said physiological monitoring means, said modifiedbattery source pack container having an outer surface with detectormeans located on said outer surface, said detector means being incommunication with said physiological monitoring means through aperturesin said modified battery power source pack container, so that saiddetector means is attached to said modified battery power source, saidcellular telephone handset further including a sound microphone; and,acoustic coupling means for coupling tones produced by saidphysiological monitoring means via said sound microphone of saidcellular telephone handset, thereby activating said physiologicalmonitoring means by placing said physiological monitoring means againsta patient's chest, said cellular telephone handset being used forconnecting to a remote monitoring station via the cellular telephonenetwork, said cellular telephone handset sending an electromagneticsignal corresponding to an acoustically coupled tonal signal produced bysaid physiological monitoring means, with means for connecting saidtelephone handset with the cellular telephone network being activated byproducing said acoustically coupled tonal signal.
 2. The physiologicalmonitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said physiologicalmonitoring means monitoring cardiac activity via an electrocardiogramECG apparatus.
 3. The physiological monitoring apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein said physiological monitoring means monitors bloodpressure.
 4. The physiological monitoring apparatus according to claim1, wherein said physiological monitoring means monitors respiratoryfunction.
 5. The physiological monitoring apparatus according to claim1, wherein said physiological monitoring means monitors pregnancy andfetal condition.
 6. The physiological monitoring apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein said physiological monitoring means monitors oxygensaturation.
 7. The physiological monitoring apparatus according to claim1, wherein said physiological monitoring means monitors blood chemistry.8. The physiological monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, whereinsaid physiological monitoring means monitors heart sounds.
 9. Thephysiological monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein saidphysiological monitoring means monitors electrical impulses emanatingfrom a patient's body.
 10. The physiological monitoring apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein said detector means includes at least onefixedly attached electrode.
 11. The physiological monitoring apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein said physiological monitoring meansmonitors signals received from a medical device implanted in a patientwith said signals indicating a proper functioning of said medicaldevice.
 12. The physiological monitoring apparatus according to claim11, wherein said medical device is a pacemaker.